Napoli offering mind-numbingly stupid bid for Chelsea forward Mohamed Salah

Chelsea have themselves a bit of a transfer issue right now. They have no real interest in keeping Mohamed Salah, who they barely played when they had him before sending him off to a fairly good loan spell at Fiorentina in the second half of last season. Fiorentina want him back, but Salah doesn't want to go back -- more on that in a minute -- and now Napoli have apparently jumped in with a shocking €22 million bid for the Egyptian forward.

Napoli, what are you doing?

Salah's situation is really complex right now. Fiorentina felt they should have had an automatic extension of Salah's loan, even after the player indicated that he really didn't want to return to the club, be it on the permanent transfer Fiorentina want or on another loan. In fact, Salah is apparently fine going to "another top Italian club," but he specifically doesn't want to go back to Fiorentina.

So now the viola are threatening legal action because apparently they paid Chelsea a fee for something that didn't ultimately happen and they're still bent on getting Salah back. Or something. No one's really clear what's going on there. What is clear is that Chelsea don't give a rip about the 23 year old's future, leaving the bidding open for whoever wants to bring Salah in. Roma are apparently already in talks with the English club, and now Napoli have decided they have to have Salah, and are lodging the aforementioned large bid for him.

Napoli, what are you doing?

Here's the problem: whole Salah is fast and exciting and has a decent short-range finish and all that, he's not actually very good. He's all speed and no end product. Once a team figures out how to run him into blind alleys, Salah is done. He doesn't pass well, his crossing is worse, and for those that care about such things, he doesn't really offer you much of anything in terms of defensive work rate.

Salah certainly has some value, sure, especially for a team that thrives on the counter-attack, but he's just not a fit for Napoli. He's far superior out wide than up top, and it looks far from certain that Napoli will even use wingers at all in most matches this season, and even if they do they already have four guys who can play a better, more complete game out wide. Even without that, he might not be worth the €14 million Chelsea paid for him 18 months ago, much less €22 million now.

Napoli, what are you doing?

The partenopei apparently also offered Chelsea the option of taking Camilo Zuniga in exchange for a lower fee, but that won't be happening. Chelsea could use a fullback, sure, but after two years of hardly playing at club level and just being OK when playing for Colombia, they're unlikely to be renewing their interest they had in him a few years ago.

Hopefully this report is only so much BS, but there's been enough buzz about a potential Napoli-Salah move over the last few days that it's hard to entirely dismiss. This would not be a good move for Napoli, so hopefully someone else beats them to Salah's signature.